Not terribly long ago I reviewed SECRETS OF THE SAQQARA TOMB. I took the position that it was the worst documentary I'd ever personally experienced, on ancient Egypt or anything else. Based upon the name, I had assumed that it was going to be about the Saqqara tomb. Unfortunately, it was mostly about utterly uninteresting and irrelevant insights on what, for example, diggers think about digging. You know, as diggers. Couldn't care less. It was simply awful.
I suppose one might make a documentary about all the people that work on archaeological digs; there may be something interesting there. When I tune into a documentary about ancient Egyptian tombs I really do expect to get information about ancient Egyptian tombs. I guess I'm narrowminded that way.
THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS: THE LOST TOMBS isn't as bad as all that, but it definitely teeters in that direction. An uncomfortably large percentage of the program is devoted to all things Zahi A. Hawass: how much he wants to make a famous find, how he's always wanted to be a successful archaeologist and blah blah blah. Zahi Hawass has always been obsessed with Zahi Hawass and he perennially seeks to be an archaeological rock star. Unfortunately, a very small bit of him goes a very long way. The show was clearly more focused on what Hawass thinks about everything than it is about this potentially earthshaking find (should he manage to find it): Nefertiti's undiscovered tomb.
Like the Saqqara tomb documentary there is some irrelevant focus on diggers and such like but at least it doesn't overwhelm the entire presentation.
Fortunately, there is just enough interesting findings in the program and enough useful new information that it is definitely worth watching.
Fascinatingly, even though they don't actually find any tombs (although there is some hope that they are on the cusp of finding one at the very end of the program) they do find some very interesting rings oddly mixed in with the general rubble on the valley floor, which I would not have expected.
Overall, Hawass' reasoning as to why he's looking where he is seems legitimate, and there is some tantalizing debris found that would tend to support his theories.
They do find a workers village INSIDE the Valley of the Kings itself which is incredible, and it's pretty much located about where you would think it should be if there is a tomb nearby. VERY exciting.
And most fascinatingly of all (to my nerdy self, anyway) they discuss tracking natural fault lines within nearby rock formations as potential clues to direct them in locating possible tomb sites. The builders of the tombs themselves heavily focused on the natural rock formations in picking their tomb sites and so using the same formations as possible signposts as a searching technique is completely new information for me. Spectacular.
The show does drag on for an hour and a half and should probably have only been the standard 42 minutes typically allocated to an hour show (with advertisements). If the show had been stripped of its human interest crud it would probably have been just right.
The show is worth watching for what dribs and drabs of new information and interesting findings it does squeeze out, but I'd suggest that you record it so you can fast-forward through the irrelevant bits.
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